France Bans Pesticide Use in Public Areas and Private Residences

FRANCE – The French are known for their pragmatic approach to health. When walking down the streets of Paris you’ll see every other building announcing at least one psychiatrist practicing in the area. There is next to no acknowledgement of ADHD in France and if there is, they treat the patient through counselling and diet first, not drugs.

Much can be said about their diet, and now, what they use on their gardens. The AP reported in late December 2016 that “children will soon be able to frolic in the grass without risk of intoxication.” Pesticides will soon be banned from all public green spaces, and gardeners of the normal household variety “will no longer be able to buy pesticides over the counter.” The only place pesticides will be used in a public space is in the dead centers of town – the cemeteries.

The “green initiative” will also see a ban on plastic bags for vegetables.

Forests, parks and gardens across France will soon be pesticide free – dealing a massive setback to the likes of Monsanto. The French will no longer tolerate this threat to their health.

And it isn’t the first time they’ve dealt a blow to the agrochemical titan.

In 2014, France banned GMO corn cultivation after much debate when the top courts initially overturned the ban in 2012. The National Assembly declared there would be no GMO crops anymore, passed a bill and adopted its laws immediately. GMO corn – due to “environmental safety concerns” – ceased to exist in France.

Although the Mainstream Media’s blackout on the French (and Russian GMO bans) occurred in 2015, when both nations announced they were “opting-out” of the GMO crops for the safety of their nations, France continued to stand up to the corporations.

Bayer did try to use scare tactics that crops would decline by up to “40 percent” but the threat has so far, fallen on deaf ears.

Although the vote is yet to be passed into law and isn’t expected until late this year following a second mid-year vote, France is setting a precedent for the world to follow; and thankfully, the pesticide ruling on public places still holds.

What this means for Monsanto

Monsanto is already in strife over the recent court ruling in San Francisco, countering industry-funded research that has stated the herbicide Roundup is safe. The unsealed documents shed light on how Monsanto tricked the public into believing their word, claiming it was backed by ‘research.’

Monsanto had ghostwritten research that was latter attributed to academics and indicated that a senior official at the Environmental Protection Agency had worked to quash a review of Roundup’s main ingredient, glyphosate…

The EU also hit Monsanto where it hurt by threatening to ban glyphosate outright, by not backing a renewal of the licensing to use the chemical. There were attempts to renew the license for up to 15 years, but an agreement wasn’t reached when the EU wanted to conduct its own research on the herbicide. This will most likely soon see a total recall of Monsanto’s Roundup across the European Union. Couple this with the French ban on other pesticides, the EU may soon follow suit on this, too.

It’s a slow death, but Monsanto’s untruths are starting to unravel the company. The suspicion of herbicide and pesticide dangers on people has all been but confirmed. The French are only the first to act on their instinct, and with any hope, Monsanto will suffer a worse fate than the bees.